


Monsters and Divine Intervention

by Leonawriter



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Dirge of Cerberus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-24 03:17:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13802250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Genesis' stay in Seventh Heaven was, as far as he could tell, going to come to an abrupt end very soon if he couldn't sort out the issue that was Denzel. The fact was, the boy seemed to hate him. And Genesis wasn't the kind to just take that sort of attitude patiently. Something had to give.





	Monsters and Divine Intervention

Denzel's opinion of Genesis started out badly simply because Genesis was... well, as far as Genesis could tell, it was everything that he was.

It was probably because of this that for him, Denzel's default expression seemed to be the glare that the kid wore every time Genesis walked into a room, said anything, or  _did_ anything. 

Honestly, he wouldn't have minded so much if it weren't for the fact that the kid lived in the same place he was currently staying in, so he had to deal with this attitude all of the time. 

Zack's endless energy and optimism - or what had  _seemed_ like endless optimism at times - had been easier to deal with. 

Not to mention the fact that if he gave in and lost his temper and did something he regretted, then he wouldn't have just lost any chance at making the kid  _not_ want to murder him in his sleep, but he'd also have probably alienated the only people who currently seemed to want to give him a chance, as well. Cloud and Tifa were patient people, and sometimes more forgiving than was realistically wise for them, but even  _they_ had limits.

And then, he'd be back to where he'd been before, living out of the ruins of Midgar. Hunting monsters for gil, attempting to gain enough to afford a place of his own when he had no guarantee that anyone would let him - an ex-SOLDIER who still openly flaunted his previous ties to Shinra even if he'd laughed in Rufus' face when the President of the washed-out company had 'asked' if he wanted to come back.

Genesis might have his pride as a SOLDIER back, but he wasn't going  _back to Shinra_. In his mind, they were two entirely different things. Just as he suspected they had become to Angeal too, before he'd died.

So he had to - somehow - find a way to make the situation bearable. 

He tried asking Tifa, one day after they'd eaten and Denzel had gone up to his room, Marlene going after him. Marlene at least didn't look at him with murderous intent, even if she obviously didn't trust him either. 

Tifa had just sighed, and shrugged with a bittersweet smile. 

"If I had to guess, I'd say that it's probably because you aren't ashamed of being SOLDIER, given how Shinra is why he lost his parents," she said in low enough tones that it wouldn't carry upstairs. "Or maybe the way anyone who cared enough to look saw Cloud fighting someone who could fly, who had a black wing just like yours, a couple of years ago. Denzel talks to Cloud more, though. So if anyone knows, he probably does more than me." 

Cloud, as it turned out, was away on one of his deliveries. And he wouldn't be back for at least another few days, maybe even a week. 

...

It happens when he's in his room - or the room he was staying in, at least - and he hears a sharp inhale of breath behind him.

He'd forgotten to close the door, he realises, when he turns around. After having had monster gore splatter over his clothes, privacy had ceased to be his first priority, easily taken over by the need to get the now disgusting things off of him, and then find the shower.

To his irritation, it was Denzel who had stopped in the middle of the hall,  _staring_. 

"Yes? Was there something you  _needed?"_

At any other time he might have tried to be more... polite. Usually, he was. But usually, the brat didn't have his eyes glued to Genesis'  _shoulder._

It would've been nice if the kid had taken the hint and  _left_ , but instead Denzel narrowed his eyes, leaving Genesis feeling like he was being challenged by something small and fluffy, reminding him uncomfortably of meeting a certain Second in Banora.

"That. On your shoulder. That wasn't... it doesn't look like it was Geostigma. What  _was_ it?"

Genesis rolls his eyes, and turns around properly - giving Denzel a proper view of the scarred flesh in the process.

"Of course it wasn't  _Geostigma._ I slept through that remember? No, this was something else. Older. Although I'm sure that Sephiroth would hardly have cared if it  _was_ his fault."

He certainly hadn't cared that his cells  _might_ have had within them some sort of cure, by the time Genesis had found out about  _that_. Though, in retrospect, who knew what would have happened if he'd  _agreed._

"What  _did_ cause it then?"

"Nosy, aren't you?" For a moment, he considered the thought of just not answering, and saying that it was  _private_. Everyone had  _something_ they didn't want to talk about. But then, given what Geostigma had been, and what he _knew_... "It was called degradation. And it was caused... by scientists dabbling in things they weren't supposed to. It did exactly what it sounds like it would - my cells degraded, and my injuries wouldn't heal properly."

"Scientists... wait, is that why you've got a wing like Sephiroth's?"

" _Like-_ if you must know," he said testily, "it would be more accurate to say that  _he_ has a wing like  _mine_. Since I did get mine  _first._ But essentially, I suppose you're on the right track, yes."

"I wouldn't have thought that was something to be  _proud_ of." Genesis just rolled his eyes again. It wasn't as though he could expect a kid who'd hardly been born when everything had started to understand. "But then..." Denzel's eyes flicked away for a moment. "If that's true, then how did you... I mean, you look fine now, so what changed?"

This time, it was Genesis' turn to look away.

"My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess..." He shook his head, a smile touching his lips. "Finding a cure wasn't so simple as just looking through a medical journal. If it were, life would have been much more..."  _If it had been that simple, perhaps I would never have gone that far. Not so many people would have died. But we can't live life wondering what if._ "Easily fixed. Instead, you could say that it was - divine intervention."

Denzel nodded, raising Genesis' estimation of him not for the first or last time, he was sure. 

"Aerith's water was what saved everyone with Geostigma," the boy said. "Even though she's in the Lifestream. Everyone was suffering, and she made it stop."

Genesis opened his mouth to say something, reached out, and his muscles tensed with a shudder. Still standing in the hall, Denzel snorted. Had the audacity to start to  _laugh_ at him.

He wouldn't have laughed if it had been  _Cloud_ who had accidentally put his bare hand onto cooling monster slime, he was sure.

...

"Denzel's not so wary of you I see," Cloud says when he's back. "Something happen?"

Tifa, wiping down the bar, heads over, cloth still in hand.

"I'd like to know that too. It seemed like one minute, you weren't getting along at all, and the next - well."

With both sets of eyes on him, he questioned how put it. 

"I suppose," he said at last, eyes lighting on the LOVELESS poster over on the wall, mouth twitching into a smile at the memory now that he was detached from it, "you could say that it was a matter of monsters and divine intervention."

Cloud rolled his eyes, and shrugged with a shake of his head, while Tifa threw the dirty cloth at him, saying that he didn't  _always_ have to be so melodramatic about everything.

Genesis just smiled to himself, while dodging.


End file.
